Waterfalls Galore

(I am still having trouble with my internet so I didn't edit any of these photos. The quality is not the way I like it but there is not much more I can do  :/ ).

It had been a rainy couple days lately so I had to get out and explore.

Cathedral Falls 

A well known falls that is really easy to get to.  

Kanawha Falls 

I cant wait for summer so I can kayak up to these falls. 

Now, most of these falls only have flow when it is raining.

I think that this wall might be park of the MidLand Trail. Over 200+ years old. 

I just could not get enough of all the water flow I was seeing. 

Loving it so much! 

Thanksgiving

We made a really quick trip home back to Cleveland for the holiday. We weren't really able to see anyone but our immediate family so that was a little disappointing.  

I also am a little disappointed in myself for not taking a lot of pictures. 

These were only the really two I have.

Emma loving some dessert. 

She couldn't even wait to get out of her seat to fall asleep after a big meal. 

Paine Falls was a quick stop to see some beauty

Overall it was a nice quick trip home. We hadn't been able to spend the holidays with family in over three years. Even though I would do anything to call Hawaii my home again, it was nice to be with family during special days. 

Oh Christmas Tree

I had it in my mind that we would be cutting out own Christmas tree down this year. Mike and I had both never done it before,even as kids. So, I looked up where the closest place would be to cut your own. 

There really wasn't much to choose from. 

We pulled up and there was no one in sight. It was a "we trust you" kinda place. 

No one was even searching and cutting the whole time we were there so the place was all to our selves. 

This tree farm was on a really steep hill so once we found a tree, it had to be carried back up the hill to the parking area. 

Even though the concept of this sounds really fun, after searching for over a hour, climbing up and down and then back up the hill again, it started to get frustrating. This farm did not have much to choose from. All of the trees needed more meat on their bones. Lots of really scarce branches or holes where branches should be.  Even when we found one that looked semi OK, we would see another in the distance that looked "better", but when getting up close it was not good at all and then we would forget which tree was the one we were just looking at.  

I kept saying we could go somewhere else and pick out one like we did every year but Mike said it was a good experience and we weren't leaving without one.  

We were pretty much done with it so we picked one and got to sawing....or Mike did, I watched. 

This one is pretty bare and the back side has a huge hole in it. I tried my best to decorate it with a abundance of stuff so it would look somewhat fuller. 

It didn't work.

Ill show a photo soon. 

Park day with the kids

I drove a little ways to take Emma and Bolo to a beautiful park that I had read about. 

It turned out to be just what I was expecting. 

I just wish it was closer to my house. 

Ritter Park 

We had lunch at first and then explored a little. 

 They have a pretty big rose garden that I am sure is absolutely beautiful in season. 

 The kid area is so cool. 

Its to bad I dont have a picture of it.

They have a huge sandbox that has a playground in the middle. 

It was such a beautiful park that I wish I could spend more time at. It being more than a hour away though, I'm not sure how often I will be here. 

Marine Corps Birthday Ball 2015

I am so embarrassed how late I am with this post.

The Marine Corps turned 240 years old on November 10th and we attended the ball to celebrate it. 

Last year Mike went solo due to Emma still being young. 

This year I had no choice but to go. Mike is in a position that I needed to meet and mingle with his Marines and spouses so it was a must I figured out who could watch Emma.

For some reason I have the hardest time figuring out the babysitter thing. I think about going on care.com and then I just never do it. Hopefully soon someone will come into my life that has a daughter/sister/or whoever that is wanting to babysit and they are normal. The normal thing is VERY important to me. 

I ended up asking my neighbor if her daughter babysits ever. I don't really ever see this neighbor but I know she has 4 kids with a wide age range. One of them is even around Emma's age. She was so open armed with me leaving Emma with them for a couple hours. I felt so much better about it knowing she was really close to home. 

I felt that I could be excited about getting fancy now that Emma was taken care of. 

It would be nice to post the photo that we had professional taken, but they said it wont be delivered in till the end of January (thats west virginia for ya) and I am not going to wait even longer to write this. 

Cocktail hour, the ceremony then dinner and it was time for us to go. All of those things takes a big chunk of time so we left when the music turned up and lights got dim. We needed to get home to our baby.  

Overall we had a wonderful time at the ball. Everyone was so lovely to meet and it was nice to have a date with my husband. 

What a view!

The View in Grandview State Park is amazing. 

I just wish we had went during fall. 

I can only imagine the colors.

Appliation Mountains

She is OBSESSED with swings at the moment.

We had a great time at this park.
I just wish it was closer to my home so we would be able to spend more time exploring.

Alligator Rock

I took Emma and Bolo for a semi quick hike to a rock formation when the leaves were just beginning to fall. 

It was so peaceful. 

West Virginia is the Wild and Wonderful state. It has tons of rolling mountains and rivers/streams EVERYWHERE. I thought for sure that there would be tons of people to connect with. People that enjoyed being outside and seeing beautiful things, but I have yet to find anyone interested in that. Out of all the hikes/waterfalls I have explored in the past 5 months that I have lived here, I maybe have seen a total of 3 people on any of the trails. I am not talking 3 people on EACH trail, I am talking all together. People just don't seem to get out like I thought it was going to be. Its not going to discourage me from getting out there but it would be really nice to have someone as company other then my favorite baby and fur baby.
Enough about that, lets get back to the hike. 

 Besides the rustling leaves under Bolo and my feet, it was as quiet as can be. 

 Alligator Rock 

 We hug out for a little while explored.

 After this hike poor Bolo had a total of 3 ticks.

I usually check him right when we get home to make sure he is clear. This hike they were really loving him. I pulled those nasty things off him and put his flea and tick medication on. It definitely must be the season.

Another great day in the woods. 

Fall = Season and Water

We haven't been to southern West Virginia yet so we headed that direction a few weeks ago. It was when the leaves were still beautiful but starting to fall. 

The plan was to check out 3 waterfalls in the area. 

I wish it would have rained recently because all of these waterfalls are pretty wide with a big flow,

but what we saw was still really beautiful.

First stop was Brush Creek Falls. 

This was the one that I actually wasn't that sure we should go to. 

We had to drive a little further out of the way from the other two and I hadn't seen to many pictures so I didn't know much about it. 

I am so glad we went!

It was my favorite one of the day.

 It was nice to let Emma get out and walk being it was a longer drive to get out here. 

 I hope I am able to come back here during the rainy season. 

I can only imagine how amazing these falls could get. 

Next, we headed over to Camp Creek State Park

The park has two waterfalls there. 

The first we saw was Mash Fork Falls

It was a smaller falls that once again would be a lot wider if it had been raining. 

Still very pretty!

 I thought this stairway was pretty neat. 

The last falls that we saw was the more popular falls at the state park.

Campbell Falls 

I once again have seen these falls in photos when it had been raining and this time when we went it was so so tiny.  

 We had a great day playing outside looking at both waterFALLS and the FALL leaves. 

Wordless Wednesday